Bhubaneswar, March 13: Mahila police today arrested a 30-year-old contractor for allegedly killing his wife for giving birth to two daughters.

The accused, identified as Amarjeet Sharma, who hails from Bihar, killed his 27-year-old wife Babita by strangulating her in their house at Dhirukuti in Mancheswar police limits.

The couple’s two daughters are aged three years and two months respectively. The family members of the woman alleged that Amarjeet had been torturing his wife ever since their marriage six years ago.

After the birth of the second daughter, the torture became worse. They alleged that the couple had an altercation over the birth of their second daughter last night, following which he killed her.

“Last night we came to know that our brother-in-law had taken our sister to hospital. We rushed to the hospital. Though he told us that our sister had tried to commit suicide, his activities and words seemed suspicious to us and we detained him at the hospital,” said Dhiresh Sharma, brother of the deceased. Later, police were informed and they took Amarjeet into custody.

Amarjeet told the police that while he was away, his wife hanged herself from the ceiling fan. When he came home he immediately rushed her to the hospital. “She died on the way,” he told the cops.

Following complaint from the family members of Babita, the police sought the help of the forensic team.

Officials said the scene at the spot was clear. There was no sign in the house of the woman hanging herself from the ceiling. Only some vegetables were seen scattered on the floor of their house.

The officials found finger marks on her neck, which indicated that her husband strangled her to death. “The postmortem report will make things clearer,” said the investigating officer of the case.

Babita’s brothers, who run a real estate business in the city, said their brother-in-law had no work in Bihar and was facing a lot of problem to earn a living.

“We hail from Bihar but are well established here. We brought our sister and her husband to the city and got him a job. He was the contractor for our projects. Whenever he wanted money, we would give it to him. Recently, we gave him Rs 50,000 in cash and yet he killed our sister,” said one of the brothers.

They said though he used to torture their sister, but had never thought he would kill her. “After the second daughter was born, his torture increased. He used to ask why our sister had given birth to daughters. Now, the girls have been orphaned,” said Dhiresh.

The Mahila police officials said they were investigating into the case.

“We will produce the accused in the court,” said a senior police officer.

The Mahila police registered a case under section 498 (A) (domestic violence against a woman), 302 (murder) and 304 (B) (dowry death) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) following complaints from the woman’s brother Dhiresh.

In June last year, a law graduate Purnima Rani Jena 29, an aspiring judge, was allegedly killed by her in-laws as she had given birth to twin daughters.